Georgia man sues state for right to have gay-themed vanity license plates

James Cyrus Gilbert III applied to Georgia Department of Driver Services for three vanity plates for his car: 4GAYLIB, GAYPWR and GAYGUY. All three were rejected, so now Gilbert is suing the department on the grounds that his free speech is being unfairly denied. The denial itself isn't the sole issue, what is also being challenged is the arbitrariness of how the state decides what plates will be approved or not.

Georgia law forbids "profanity, language the community considers obscene or language that ridicules a person, group, or religious belief or being, race or ethnicity" on vanity plates. The question Gilbert's attorneys want answered is why HATERS, BLKBUTI and JESUS4U were cleared, but Gilbert's choices are on a list of more than 10,000 banned plates.

Even the state has admitted that its application of the law is inconsistent and that "viewpoint neutrality... is impossible," and outside legal observers have said that it looks like it will be hard for the state to win the case. Gilbert's lawyers want his plate choices approved and the law defining what is acceptable to be declared unconstitutional.

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The gay community has to seriously get over itself.
Who doesn't know or hasn't known someone who is gay?
I had gay roommates in the military, gay friends during my work career, so what is the big fricken deal?
Get over the gay marriage hurdle, accept a civil union that is subject to all the same rules and laws of married hetro's and move on. You really aren't special gay people, you're not.

NOt that I agree with a single one of your points, but let's say your ignorant point of view is correct. Why deny the license plate. I can GUARANTEE you that someone has "STR8MAN" or "STR8LVR" on their license plates. All this person was doing was the same thing. What you are REALLY trying to say is that we have to accept YOUR place for us in this world. We have to acccept what YOU deem is necessary and appropriate for us. Would you be happy to have to explain to every single person you meeet that your wife isn't your wife but your civil union partner? Explain that to your kids? If it's "no friggin deal" in YOUR words, let's just have ONE type of legal union and that is called MARRIAGE. As far as the licent plates go, nothing on that list was profane in any way. It was just a bigoted and arbitrary decision to not allow them.

I THINK that you have a POINT but it is hard to READ when you decide to YELL every once in a WHILE. I could personally care less about all of this. They can do what they want, as long as I don't have to hear about it. I don't want to exclude anybody so I don't care if you are straight, gay, a vegetarian, like tatoos or not. I don't want to hear about your personal life so shut up already.

I really hate to say it, but we all had better get used to accepting what other people deem is necessary and appropriate. It seems that this is the direction that our country is heading. In NY, for example, politicians have decided that it is not necessary or appropriate to let places serve 32oz drinks and now it is law. I'm sure next up will be guns, and who knows what will come after that, but it will be something. Also, the government should have no say in what has been termed 'marriage' as it is a religious institution. I agree with the original post only in that if a civil union acts as marriage, looks like marriage, and has all of the benefits of marriage, take it cause it isn't that raw of a deal. The 'marriage' label is another and much less important battle. JUST MY OPINIONS.

Who says he's trying to be special? "HATERS, "BLKBUTI," and "JESUS4U" all got their plates, why can a gay man not? Looks to me like he specifically does NOT want "special" treatment, but rather to be given the same treatment as everyone else.

SooooRight, Sorry, but your civil union doesn't hold water.
Gays still don't have equality. I can not put my partner on my insurance, unlike all the "straight" couples I work with can.
and that is just one example for you.

I recommend that you gain a sense of humor and learn how to take a... joke. You will find that life is more enjoyable when you can brush off the offensiveness that is inherent in most comedy and laugh along.

[blocked]

Good for him and I hope he wins and with it will make sure other people won't have to be rejected for being proud of what they're, why shouldn't anyone have that right if it don't cause harm to others?

When I say abusing rights, I mean going into a black neighborhood dressed like the kkk and saying they're an inferior people, then expecting to walk away without getting beat up. I don't mean it's abuse to say you're gay on a license plate, but is it necessary or the smartest thing to do outside of san francisco?

Most people could care less if he is gay. Someone being gay outside of San Francisco is nothing at all like a man going into a black neighborhood while dressed in klan garb. That's a ridiculous comparison.

I don't see the abuse here. It's not like he was trying to have something vulgar put on his plate. By making this an issue, they're just going to attract more of what they were trying to avoid, so why not just let the man have his plate, and be done with it?

Lol and voted thumbs up, but if there really are people (guys) out here whose heterosexual image depends on the average citizen's ability to distinguish a V6 Mustang from a V8-GT-500-Shelby-whatever Mustang, well, good luck with that.

No, they would not. As one who lives in the south and has spent time in various parts of this country, I can confidently say that you have no idea what you are talking about. I happen to live in a particular southern town that has a vibrant gay community, and in the 16 years I have been here, I have yet to see the kind of hostility towards them that you are describing.
At the end of the day, people are people. The rural country people I've met around here were really not much different from the ones I ran in to in rural parts of New England, and the upper Midwest. The accents are the main distinction.

When a group hands the microphone to someone to represent you this is what happens. In the deep red south, the people with the microphone think this President that is gun 'hatin, abortion lovin', secret homosexual that will get his rainbow army in Blackhawks to take all them guns away. If the people of that state disagreed with this sentiment, then why do they keep giving the microphone to those who spew such garbage?
(Seriously, If they can call Obama a Socialist, Communist and Fascist at the same time it proves that they dont know the first thing about political theory. Therefore they shouldn't have the mic in the first place.)

I'm sorry, I'm going to have to disagree with you after personal experiences with southern hospitality, in the form of extreme racism, right out in the open (along with shotguns & rifles). No f*^&g way in %$#@ is the south anywhere near as accepting as the north & upper midwest. All I did was stop for gas in my Grand National, and was subjected to police endorsed racist hail of profanities and gunfire. Luckily, my GN could outrun the lot of them, but don't you ever say the people from the south are just like the northerners.

No Chris, you do not know what it's like. You have never had your life threatened simply because you don't look like the majority, ridiculed because you're different, physically assaulted for merely being not white. Having never experienced this, you will never know, you will never see what minorities see, never feel like minorities do. You speak of being called racial slurs, but you will most likely never experience the actual hatred behind it. It's such a horrible a feeling I would never wish on anyone, even my worst enemies. You act like this is such a joke, but you are the joke, believing that simply spending time in other parts of the country makes you an expert on this. Minorities face this every time we leave the house. You don't see any of it because you're part of it.

clquake
It sounds like what happened to you was an isolated incident, and not necessarily a reflection of the south itself. Over the last couple of decades, many black people have been moving back to southern states, like Georgia. Meanwhile, Detroit, where I am originally from is somewhat the poster child for social unrest.
It's not bigotry that I find to be a joke; it's the people the people that are always accusing others of it.